28 New Horizons / April 2008 ranks of the First Battalion also suffered notes with regret that in the Second terribly: by the end of 1914 alone, only Battalion, aside from “the Commanding between 80 and 90 of the men who had left Officer, Adjutant, and Captain Stanway, the Malta for France remained (Dudley Ward regular officers remaining were too junior to 110). After the horrific bloodshed of the be regarded as being of the Old Army; Somme-Scarpe battles of 1916–17, the temporary officers from the civil population Regimental Records sombrely note that, predominated . . . ” (qtd. in Dudley Ward “As the old trained soldiers gradually 160). Many regular officers appreciated the disappeared, the regiment must take note of courage and enthusiasm of these temporary a great change” (Dudley Ward 305). That officers, but believed that they lacked the change was the introduction of the New professionalism and military instinct necessary Army Battalions and the replacement of for the efficient handling of their men in regular “old hands” with civilian recruits. emergencies. Resentment increased in Line The effects of the continual refilling of the Battalions as regular officers had to support Regular Battalions, and their augmentation the inexperienced civilian officers. Social by Kitchener’s Army, was gradual but concerns also showed themselves. Some profound. The new drafts that brought the regular officers looked upon their temporary First Battalion up to strength in December counterparts with contempt as a result of 1914 “were as grimly determined or as their breeding. Not only was gentleman indifferent to blows” as the “Old status considered necessary for military Contemptibles” they now fought alongside effectiveness as an officer by the Edwardian (Dudley Ward 110–11). Sassoon himself had social standards of the officer corps, but the been posted to the First Battalion in a draft conduct of these civilians in uniform—such to replace the officer losses from the action as public displays of affection—was seen as at Festubert in May 1915 (Sassoon, shockingly unprofessional. Army publications Fox-Hunting Man 319). Frank Richards reminded temporary officers of the standards even accepted drafts of undersized “Bantam” of behaviour that regular officers found recruits to the Second Battalion as “good axiomatic: officers should not smoke a soldiers in action” (273) after their 19th pipe in public, be seen with women of (Bantam) Battalion had been disbanded in questionable character, or drink excessively. December 1917 (Dudley Ward 378). In most Moderation was stressed, and these cases, however, as the war progressed, the “temporary gentlemen” were also advised quality of the new drafts (no longer those not to spend too much time in cinemas, in pulled from the Special Reserve Battalion, bars, or reading books (Simpson 75–77). but instead civilian New Army recruits, or The authors of such publications also seemed worse, conscripts) suffered, and the respect to worry that these officers would neglect and tolerance of the surviving regular soldiers their men, admonishing them “not to think for these “duration of the war” soldiers that [an officer’s] duties end with the dropped accordingly. dismissal of his platoon after the parade” Officer quality was also perceived to have (Notes for Young Officers qtd. in Simpson suffered as the war lengthened. Much of this 77). However, Siegfried Sassoon, while with decrease in quality was ascribed to officer the Third (Special Reserve) Battalion at recruiters having to dig deeper into the social Litherland Camp, noted such social barrel to replace the junior officers lost on differences between the holders of the Somme. The fact that newly formed commissions from the Special Reserve (like Officer Cadet Battalions began to instruct his own) and Royal Military Colleges and their recruits in leadership courses points to those who held temporary ones, and he this compromise and a necessary shift away dismissed these differences as unimportant, from the traditional officer class (Simpson deciding that the temporary officers “usually 88). As early as February 1916, J.C. Dunn turned out to be first-rate officers when they